Shirtless and Ripped Tom Cruise Does Stunts for ‘Mission: Impossible 4’

Much has been said about Tom Cruise reprising his role as Ethan Hunt in “Mission: Impossible 4” – mostly negative stuff – but he’s proving all skeptics wrong, judging by these new pics from the set.

While reports were saying earlier this year that the star was “desperate” at the thought of reprising the role because he was not fit or young enough, recently surfaced photos show the exact contrary.

Granted, Cruise no longer looks like he did in his late 20s or 30s (but who does?), but he’s still in amazing shape – so amazing actually that he can – and does – his own stunts, as Monsters And Critics can confirm.

“Tom Cruise films scenes for new Mission Impossible 4 movie in Prague. Tom can be seen mounting the roof of a moving van on a zip wire from the third floor of a Prague building,” M&C writes.

“Tom showed that even at the age of 48 he still has the body to pull off the top secret mission involved in being Ethan Hunt,” the e-zine further says.

Indeed, dressed in nothing but pants and with some kind of supporting wired contraption on his abdomen, the actor was seen leaping, doing flips and running barefoot.

“Cruise was barefoot with just a pair of green trousers on as he rode down a zipwire suspended between two buildings,” M&C says.

In August this year, after confirmation came that Oscar nominee Jeremy Renner had been cast in the film as well, word got out that Cruise was determined to get surgery to look “10 years younger” and start a grueling workout regime asap.

He was determined to show that he still had what it took to make good action movies and, most importantly, to come back on the big screen as one of his biggest and most lucrative characters to date.

“Tom has put himself on a strict fitness routine and diet, which includes daily three-hour workouts and a low-carb meal plan consisting of 1,200-1,300 calories per day,” a source told InTouch Weekly at the time, as we also reported.

“Tom had to fight hard to reprise his role as super agent Ethan Hunt – Paramount reportedly blamed Tom for the disappointing performance of MI:3, and they wanted someone younger – and cheaper – for the sequel,” the same source says.

As it turns out, Paramount didn’t make a bad call by going back with Cruise.